Friends of the Earth and Public Transport Not Traffic support the inquiry into operations of existing and proposed toll roads in Australia.

We seek to secure policy commitments that will protect the environment. After the electricity sector, transport is the largest greenhouse gas emitter in Victoria, and it is essential that our state radically reduce emissions from transport. Making our transport system more focused on public transport, walking, cycling and building for proximity will also bring a range of social and public health benefits that are incompatible with current and proposed toll road network.

Friends of the Earth: Coalition of the willing on renewables welcome, but “must deliver existing state/territory commitments”Friends of the Earth, the environment group that coordinated the campaign for a Victorian Renewable Energy Target, welcomes the idea of a joint state and territory effort to rollout renewables as long as it delivers existing commitments: “A coalition of willing states and territories to drive the rollout renewable energy is a good idea, as long as it delivers existing commitments such as the Andrews government’s Victorian Renewable Energy Target,” said Pat Simons, Friends of the Earth's renewable energy spokesperson.

“Australians overwhelmingly support more renewable energy and would welcome a joint effort among states and territories that is a race to the top.” Victorian Minister for Energy Lily D’Ambrosio, the architect of the state Renewable Energy Target (VRET), has flagged the concept of state/territory collaboration on the eve of a Council of Australian Governments Energy Council meeting in Brisbane.

The Andrew’s government’s announcement that it will purchase the ailing ASH timber mill in the Gippsland town of Heyfield will come at a massive cost to tax payers and the environment, Friends of the Earth has said.

In a remarkably clumsy attempt to bully local communities, federal Treasurer Scott Morrison has threatened state and territory governments with financial penalties by cutting their GST distribution if they limit gas exploration.

Mr Morrison has announced that the Productivity Commission was including states’ attitudes to the exploitation of natural resources in its inquiry into the GST ­formula.

Friends of the Earth welcome the announcement of state government support for a $565 million expansion of the Nectar Farms hydroponic business near Stawell. The project will see the construction of the Bulgana wind farm and create 1,300 jobs.

Friends of the Earth's say the announcement shows that state government support for climate change solutions creates jobs and brings investment to regional communities such as Stawell.

"The Andrews government's support for the wind-powered hydroponics project will create 1,300 new jobs in the Stawell region and shows investment in climate change solutions bring jobs and investment to regional communities."

Recent logging in the Acheron forests north of Warburton has severely impacted on a large population of protected greater gliders.

Greater gliders are Australia’s largest gliding marsupial and Victoria’s latest threatened species. Last month the greater glider was officially listed as a threatened and protected species on the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act.

But logging in greater glider habitat is continuing with no protections for this unique marsupial.

VicForests has just started logging in the ‘Floater’ coupe near Toolangi, to the north east of Melbourne in the Central Highlands.

Earlier this week, volunteer surveyors from Wildlife of the Central Highlands (WOTCH) recorded a critically-endangered Leadbeater's Possum next to the coupe. WOTCH is now calling for the environment minister Lily D’Ambrosio to intervene and put a halt to the logging.

Friends of the Earth acknowledge that we meet and work on the land of the Wurundjeri people and that sovereignty of the land of the Kulin Nation were never ceded. We pay respect to their Elders, past and present, and acknowledge the pivotal role that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to play within the Australian community.